In my reading through the bible, I went through Romans 12, where there is a pretty good sized list of ‘virtues’ that I found. Working off the 2 Peter 1 passage to add virtue to faith, this is a good list of some biblical virtues. First I’ll just give the passage, then I’ll list the virtues, but categorized as I see them.
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
I grouped these into 3 broad categories:
Internal
These 6 elements are things that we do internally. While some of them are exercised on other people, like sincerity, they are ways we internally approach life.
Be sincere
Sincere- free from pretense or deceit; proceeding from genuine feelings.
In general, I feel like I do this, but there’s always room for improvement. I’ll say I don’t think I should just let out whatever feelings I have, because otherwise it would be “insincere”. Keeping a lid on certain thoughts is just using a filter and learning to not say things that shouldn’t be said out loud.
While I don’t want to fake feelings and be deceitful, neither do I want every thought in my head out into the world. I don’t think sincerity is ‘total transparency’ in the sense of just broadcasting all your feelings. some of the synonyms are honest and genuine, and I think that’s the essence of what we should be aiming for.
This should be primarily directed at how we live our lives, not what we’re willing to say to other people. There’s no shortage of people who considers themselves so honest and forthright that they’re willing to insult others. My advice to myself when I’m tempted to do so would be to first get the log outta my own eye before trying to pick a bit a dust out of someone else’s eye. Perhaps passive-aggressive is an example of the kind of insincerity I’d want to avoid.
Cling to what is good and hate evil
Hold on tightly to what is good, and conversely hate what is evil.
The trick is recognizing the particular things the bible would call evil, and which of those I am particularly susceptible to. These are the things I need to learn to hate. It would help if I’d recognize that I should hate those things because the Lord hates them and because they are demonstrably bad for me, so I even have a self-interest in hating them.
Keep spiritual fervor, serving the Lord
Keep your passion and intensity for the spiritual things while serving the Lord.
You can keep doing things for a while, because it’s an action and we can force ourselves to perform an action. But the fervor… the passion… the intensity… that’s an internal approach to why we perform the action and that is HARD to maintain.
I think here might be a good place to think about the John 15 and the Lord being the Vine and us the branches, and apart from Him we are unable to do anything. Unless I am connected to Him continually, there is just no way I’m going to have any hope of maintaining this. Even then, I’d call this aspirational…. I certainly haven’t figured it out. I have fits and starts of passion, but I can’t keep it up. But IF I’m going to keep spiritual fervor, it will come through pushing to serve, and then pushing to stay connected because that’s the only way to serve with fervor. Maybe that’s why Paul mentions these together- both will be required: I can’t serve without fervor, and I can’t maintain fervor without serving.
Be faithful in prayer
This is the primary mode of staying in touch with the Lord, combined with time spent in the Bible. It will be key in maintaining any spiritual fervor, and ultimately, it is its own reward because it is time spent with the Lord.
Be joyful in hope
hope is a feeling of expectation and desire. So be joyful in the expectation and desire you have for the Lord.
Be patient in affliction
Thankfully, I don’t find myself ‘afflicted’ in the way Paul is probably thinking of. My ‘afflictions’ are more the ‘first world problems’ sort. But, hey, that’s where I am, so I should start there. One of the things I get bugged about most is people cutting in on me in traffic. Not just people getting in front of me, that’s unavoidable; but when we come to a merge, and a bunch of people cut from behind me to run up to the front of the line. This is a giant ‘screw everyone else, me first!’ to the rest of us that are waiting in line. By nature, I get worked up about this and start thinking of ways I can get them back or cut them off. But truthfully, there isn’t really anything I can do, and getting upset about it only makes it worse for me. So I’m trying to take Elsa’s advice and just let it go. Be patient, even in the minor inconveniences, if not afflictions. I can start there, and then when actual afflictions come, I’ll perhaps be a bit more prepared.
External
These 9 things are implemented with others. They are ways of relating to other people.
Rejoice with those that rejoice
I don’t have too much problem with this personally. I’m relatively quick to rejoice with others when things are going well with them.
Mourn with those that mourn
This one is tougher for me. I’m not naturally a super-empathetic person. I will empathize to a degree with those who are going through tough times, and I can commiserate with them, but it doesn’t really sink into my thoughts very deeply. Perhaps this verse isn’t requiring that kind of deep empathy though.
Be willing to associate with people of low positions- don’t be conceited or proud
I probably associate more easily with people of low positions than high, since I’m closer to the low end of the socio-economic scale than the high myself. But as the saying goes- we tend to think those that are higher on the scale than we are aren’t really any better than us, it’s just the breaks they go; and yet we tend to think we ARE actually better than those lower on the scale. Maybe I am guilty of this to some degree, but I feel like I don’t have too much problem associating with anyone. Now conceit and pride on the other hand, I’m as guilty of that as the next guy. I try to be humble but it’s an ongoing work. My main mechanism for dealing with my pride is to remember how much of a screw-up I am, and how much the Lord has forgiven me. This grounds my own tendency to think better of myself. All I need to do is reflect on my actions a bit before I realize I have no grounds to find fault in other people.
There was another thought I had on this, but I can’t remember it at the moment. Remembering my own guilt before the Lord was one mechanism and it seems like there was some other mechanism I was thinking of that would help with this, but again, can’t remember what it was.
Honor one another above yourselves
I would hope I do ok with this, but one of the things that immediately comes to mind is my tendency in group conversations to want to push my own thoughts out there. That’s not all bad- some of it is just contributing to the conversation. But it may be an indicator that I’m too willing to think first of myself.
Share with other believers in need
I hope I do this, but I’m considering the homeless. Now, the verse says other “believers” in need, not just everyone. None of us is able to save everyone we come into contact with, and biblically, there is an expectation of believers actively working to provide for themselves, not just living as freeloaders off the generosity of others. The current homeless crisis, with the ranks being swelled by the addicted and the mentally ill, is a different situation than this verse.
I do try and give a fair amount of money to charities because I know the Lord has blessed me, so I want to bless others.
Practice hospitality
I think I do this pretty well. I will let people stay at my house. When we have guests, we give up our bedroom to let them stay. I treat people to dinners as much as I can.
Live in harmony with one another
This one comes naturally to me. I’m thinking immediately: I don’t get into fights with other people, so I live in harmony with them. I don’t know if this means more than that. I suppose if I wanted to push the issue, I could proactively look for ways to bless people. But in comparison with the cousin admonition below, this would seem to be directed towards other believers- the church community.
Live at peace with everyone as much as possible
Seems like the same point but I believe the context of this one is directed to those outside the church. I can’t live in harmony with non-believers because we have different goals and are aligned to different masters. But I can at least as much as possible, live at peace. This comes pretty natural to me since I not only don’t go around picking fights, I actively try and bring people together.
Do what is right
the verse says “do what is right in the eyes of everyone”, which of course isn’t to be taken literally since it would be impossible. This is in the section of verses 17-21 which are directed at our conduct with those outside the church. So in this context, I would take it as meaning to live in such a way as they can’t fault me for anything obvious. They may not like my belief in God, or something of that nature… but I should be upright, honesty, a person of integrity, trustworthy, etc., so that they can’t accurately accuse me of wrong.
Reaction to Evil
Most of these instructions are given in the section containing verses 17-21, except for one, found in verse 14. I almost labeled this section: Impossible without the Lord.
Overcome evil with good
Awhile back I was talking with some friends about this principle after watching some superhero shows. It’s a common theme in crime-fighting. What is the appropriate response to criminals? They don’t fight according to the rules, so it always puts the ‘good guys’ at a disadvantage. That opens the doors for the anti-heroes; the guys who will stoop to the same tactics the ‘bad guys’ use, but only against the bad guys. Is this justified? In a fair amount of action movies, the ‘good guys’ seem to think it’s not. The most common response is: if we act like the bad guys, doesn’t that make us the same as them? Which is, to be honest, a fair question. We’d like to imagine that employing whatever means to get to an end result is fair. But then it is perfectly fair to question how we’re going to get to a better place, if the people populating that place are using the same means as the bad guys? Any end we get to using the means of evil will probably end up being just as evil.
Which is perhaps why the Lord would tell us here to overcome evil with good. At least that’s a practical effect for us. But there’s more to it than just this.
Don’t repay evil for evil / Don’t take revenge
I’m going to lump these two together because they seem pretty similar to me. And this is obviously tied together with overcoming evil with good. These admonitions tell me what not to do: look to pay back the guy who did me wrong with an equal or greater measure…. while the prior admonition tells me what to do: pay the guy who did me wrong with some good instead.
So I won’t call the guys who cut me off in traffic douchebags, or look to pay them back with blocking them in if I get a chance.
OK, seriously…loving your enemies is a difficult thing to do. It will have to start with that recognition of who I am in relation to the Lord, and how he treated me. If I can digest that lesson, and see others around me as just as lost as I was, then it at least makes sense why I shouldn’t see payback.
The second part of it will be that he has saved ME so that I could represent HIM in the world. Jesus isn’t physically walking in this world anymore. He gave us his Spirit so he could multiply himself in each of us, imperfect vessels as we are. So it’s my duty, as one He saved, to then allow Him to work through me to save others.
If I take revenge on them, I block the work he wants to do in their life, and I actively work against the purpose the Lord had for saving me: to be a picture of Him in this world.
Bless those that persecute you and don’t curse them
Very much along the rationale lines of the previous discussion. We do a thing called drive-thru prayer, where we stand out on a busy street and hold up signs offering to pray for people. Occasionally, people will flip us off, or scream obscenities at us. This not only doesn’t bother me, but I actually accept it, because the Bible tells me that I’m blessed when I suffer for the name of Jesus. So they can heap all the abuse on me they want. Well… I should be careful about wanting that…but I’ll accept some abuse for the name of Jesus.
If it were to come to actual persecution, I would hope I could live up to this. But it’s all for the same reason as mentioned above. Jesus saved me so I could represent His love for the lost on the earth. If I call myself a Christian, and then return curses for trouble, that would tell the lost that Jesus is against them and wants to curse them. That’s a serious misrepresentation of Jesus, who said: Father forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.
If an enemy is hungry or thirsty, given him food or drink
This actually takes the previous statement to another level. If I’m encouraged there to bless when cursed, here I’m told to take it to an active level of providing for an enemy. This kind of reminds me of when the protestors would show up at a Chick-fil-a and the restaurant would send out cups of cold water for them on hot days.
This has the practical effect of reducing the effectiveness of the action. The protestors are there to demonstrate that Chick-fil-a is bad, and people shouldn’t go there. Chick-fil-a provides demonstrable evidence that the protestors are wrong by returning a blessing when cursed.
When we provide for an enemy, we undermine their rationale.
And we demonstrate the love of the Lord, who loved us while we yet sinners.